Is Pennsylvania McCain's Last Stand? ("they’re counting on us to be bigots”)

The Times-Tribune (Scranton PA) ^ | 11/2/08 | BORYS KRAWCZENIUK

[Born Conservative]

For more than two weeks, John McCain, Sarah Palin and a variety of their campaign surrogates have devoted much of their attention and limited resources toward turning the Keystone State red for the first time since 1988.

But with the Republican presidential nominee due in Scranton again today, most recent independent polls have shown Democratic nominee Barack Obama ahead by double digits (a few polls show a tighter race).

It may be that the McCain campaign thinks there’s something about the state’s mix of rural voters, working-class whites and culturally conservative Democrats that gives it a chance invisible to pollsters.

“There is no other reason for John McCain and Sarah Palin to be in the state based on what the polls say, except that they’re counting on us to be bigots,” said former Scranton Mayor James McNulty, a Democrat. “Why else are they here? They’re counting on Pennsylvania not voting for a black man.”

Ridiculous, says Republican Lackawanna County Commissioner A.J. Munchak.

“He forgets that we were labeled bitter and hanging on to our guns and our Bibles,” Mr. Munchak said. “I don’t believe the polls. I honestly don’t believe the polls. I think a lot of people, when asked, are afraid to say they’re voting against Obama because people will put that (racist) label on them ... I think it’s a lot closer than Mr. McNulty thinks.”

Whether they believe the polls or not, Mr. McCain’s campaign appears to have decided that there’s no reasonable path to victory without Pennsylvania’s 21 electoral votes.

Pennsylvania is a must-win for Mr. McCain, and it may be his last stand.

Polls consistent

The McCain campaign pulled out of Michigan in early October and trails, by polling, in many states that President Bush carried in 2004.

Facing an electoral map with shrinking battlefronts, his campaign has thrown much of its remaining resources at Pennsylvania in an effort to offset other potential losses.

Whether it’s working is highly debatable.

For weeks, polling of state voters has overwhelmingly favored Mr. Obama.

The daily tracking poll by Muhlenberg College in conjunction with the Allentown Morning Call newspaper has had Mr. Obama ahead by 10 points or more since Oct. 3, with Mr. Obama at 53 percent as of Thursday night and Mr. McCain at 43 percent, his peak. Mr. Obama’s support has been no lower than 52 percent since Oct. 15 while Mr. McCain’s has been as low as 37 percent.

Five other polls this week had the spread at between 9 and 14 points in Pennsylvania, including a 12-point edge in Quinnipiac University poll and a 13-point edge in a Franklin & Marshall College poll.

But there is a faint silver lining for Republicans who are looking for it.

The 10-point margin in the latest Muhlenberg poll was 3 percentage points narrower than the night before, and at least two other polls this week had the race much closer.

An NBC Mason-Dixon poll had it at 47 percent to 43 percent for Mr. Obama.

Atlanta-based Strategic Vision LLC, had Mr. Obama at 49 percent and Mr. McCain at 44 percent in a poll released Friday. The poll surveyed 1,200 likely voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Strategic Vision president David Johnson said the race had tightened among white female voters in the Philadelphia suburbs, always a key to winning the state.

Obama focuses elsewhere

As Mr. McCain and his campaign have blanketed the state, Mr. Obama has paid only occasionally visits, a sure sign he thinks polls are running in his favor here. It has allowed him to concentrate on reliably Republican states he thinks he can win, such as Virginia and Colorado.

Though he did visit Pittsburgh on Monday and the Philadelphia suburbs on Tuesday, Mr. Obama has left most of the campaigning in Pennsylvania to surrogates, including his running mate Sen. Joseph Biden, who was in Williamsport and Allentown on Thursday and is expected back at least once more.

Mr. McCain will be in Scranton today, while Mr. Obama will be represented here by Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, revered locally by Democrats.

Christopher Borick, Ph.D., the director of the Muhlenberg poll that has shown consistent double-digit Obama leads, said he doubts the polls that show Mr. Obama ahead by only 4 or 5 points.

Mr. McCain can still win the state, but his path is narrower, he said.

If turnout expectations for young and minority voters fall short, if the McCain campaign carries out an exceptionally good get-out-the-vote effort, if white and elderly voters suddenly turn squeamish about Mr. Obama, Mr. McCain “can make this close,” he said.

“It’s got to be like a perfect game, though,” Dr. Borick said.

Democrats have won the state the last four times and now outnumber Republicans by 1.1 million voters, double the margin in 2004.

That, more than anything, illustrates how difficult it will be for Mr. McCain to win.

[Born Conservative]

Sorry, McNulty, it has nothing to do with bigotry.

[Born Conservative]

http://bohicaville.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/pennsylvania-is-still-in-play/

[liberateUS]

I’m biased against Socialists, Muslims, and liberal thugs.

[Adder]

“There is no other reason for John McCain and Sarah Palin to be in the state based on what the polls say, except that they’re counting on us to be bigots,” said former Scranton Mayor James McNulty, a Democrat.

Idiot.

Oops...I see it already says that: “a Democrat”

Its not “race” its communism. Its working to have MORE taken away from you. Its bad enough that so much of our hard earned money is wasted now but it is absurd to vote deliberately to send MORE to the pit of DC!

WAKE UP!!!!

[nobama08]

The Dems play the race card once again. I gave up my white guilt after I saw Rev. Wright.

[Born Conservative]

Pennsylvania “Bigot” ping

[areukiddingme1]

“it has nothing to do with bigotry”

And that is precisely why the left is going to lose — they are not fighting the same war we are. We are fighting liberalism and they are fighting race.

While they only see this as a “black/white” thing, it really boils down to a “right/left” thing.

The left candidate is simply too risky!

He is too liberal, which when they ran Bill Clinton wasn’t the same problem (oh he was liberal, but not a flame’n socialist by his own admission during an unscripted moment) — now they have chosen “the” most liberal candidate ever and then try to blame his defeat on bigotry — that is just plain ignorant.

[ronnie raygun]

If Mccain wins we are all racists in America, If Obama wins we are still all racists in America, why? because the ones calling us racists are the true racists!

[mewzilla]

“There is no other reason for John McCain and Sarah Palin to be in the state based on what the polls say, except that they’re counting on us to be bigots,” said former Scranton Mayor James McNulty, a Democrat. “Why else are they here? They’re counting on Pennsylvania not voting for a black man.”

Paging Mr. McNulty...

The Racist History of the Democratic Party

Who are the bigots...?

[ronnie raygun]

Racism is used as a tool by them to disguise socialism.

[Heartland Mom]

Send the youtube video of Bambi dissing coal to everyone you know in PA and OH. I would have thought his stance on guns would have been enough to make them see the light, but apparently not.

[Cricket24]

If it means you are bigot because you refuse to vote for a man who is of muslim descent while we are at war with radical muslims, then I am guilty. I am not one bit sorry either.
Of course there are a thousand other reasons why I won’t be voting for him.

[MrB]

Conversely, hizzoner is saying that the only reason you wouldn’t vote for 0bama is that you’re a bigot.

Now, when you go into the booth, you wouldn’t want to feel guilty about being a bigot, now would you, comrade? Yeah, there ya go, pull the lever for the black guy and you’ll have a clear conscience...

[MrB]

I think its a safe assumption to say that any liberal who identifies himself as AA has a trained dislike for whitey.

[areukiddingme1]

“Racism is used as a tool by them to disguise socialism.”

I know, and that is just baffling to me — the left really believes that “white guilt” really exists.

How sad, how very very very sad, that they only see the Americans on the right side of the political spectrum that narrowly (racist)...I have said for years that the left never wins another presidential election until it puts forward more centrist candidates like Jim Webb (S-VA) or Gene Taylor (C-MS) or even Chet Culver (G-IA) up for election.

Americans just don’t do radical left.

Thank God!

[igoramus08]

The Dems play the race card once again. I gave up my white guilt after I saw Rev. Wright.

There is only one candidate that went to a racist church for 20 years.

We have Obama on audio, reading from his book saying "white man's greed" quoting Rev. Wright.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7fi8STNlxM
Obama: "Some of the common factors that effect Bosnia or Los Angeles or all kinds of places on this earth and that is the tendancy for one group to try to suppress another group in the interest of power or greed or resources."
Obama: "Whether you are a white executive living out in the suburb who doesnt want to pay taxes to inner city children for them to go to school..."
[also in full interview at 9:22 and 12:20]

New 1995 Obama video on Wright
"Wright who is my paster and he is a wonderful man".
"My own faith which is not necessarily a traditional faith".
"Rev. Wright, my pastor who I speak about in a chapter the book, represents the best of what the Black church has to offer"

[Dahoser]

Absolutely typical. Murtha the RAT who’s running for reelection actually calls Pennsylvanians racists and rednecks, but this clymer blames the Republicans. The sad part is that people will react to what he’s saying and hold it against McCain.

[uncbob]

If asked I say "I am a Typical White Person that is afraid of Black Males "

That is why I am voting against Obama

[nobama08]

Last night I spent a lot of time on YouTube watching Nobama spout various things. The more I listened, the more afraid I became. At this point all I can do is to keep on praying. America has turned its back on God so perhaps Nobama is our punishment.

[ETL]

Sorry, McNulty, it has nothing to do with bigotry.

Send THIS on to McNutty...

VIDEO! Pennsylvania Governor Rendell Praises Farrakhan and N.O.I.:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DXum_-8I1TA
__________________________________________________________

From the Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam website, FinalCall.com...
Malik Zulu Shabazz, chairman of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (NBPP):
"We are happy today to be standing side by side with the Nation of Islam. We believe, like the Nation of Islam and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad believe, in a nation of our own. We believe in a Black first philosophy and a Black Liberation Theology. We don’t worry about the criticism. We love all of those who labored in the Panther Party from the ’60s. Many are with us today."
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_1858.shtml
__________________________________________________________

From Jeff Head's website...
One notable quote from [James] Cone describing his Black Liberation Theology is as follows:

"Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community ... Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love." - "Divine Racism: The Unacknowledged Threshold Issue for Black Theology", in African-American Religious Thought: An Anthology, by William R Jones, ed Cornel West and Eddie Glaube (Westminster John Knox Press).
http://www.jeffhead.com/blacklibtheology.htm

African American Religious Thought: An Anthology (Paperback)
by Cornel West (Editor), Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (Editor)
http://www.amazon.com/African-American-Religious-Thought-Anthology/dp/0664224598
__________________________________________________________

HANNITY: But Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not backing down and has not for years and in his strong stance on the teaching of black liberation theology is nothing new. He had the same things to say last spring when he appeared on "Hannity & Colmes:"

WRIGHT: If you're not going to talk about theology in context, if you're not going to talk about liberation theology that came out of the '60s, systematized black liberation theology that started with Jim Cone in 1968 and the writings of Cone and the writings of Dwight Hopkins and the writings of womynist theologians and Asian theologians and Hispanic theologians, then you can't talk about the black value system.

HANNITY: But I'm a — reverend

WRIGHT: Do you know liberation theology, sir?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354158,00.html